Rubio tells Shehbaz US wants to work with Pakistan for peace in region

ISLAMABAD: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday called Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and expressed his country’s desire to close cooperation between the two countries to ensure peace and stability in the region.

“The US wants to work with Pakistan to promote peace and stability in the region,” said Rubio, according to a statement issued by the press wing of Prime Minister’s Office.

The remarks came as he praised Pakistan’s efforts for a peaceful Middle. 

As the two sides held a frank discussion, the prime minister praised President Donald Trump for his brave and decisive leadership, which led to ceasefire between Iran and Israel.

He also thanked Rubio for the key role he played in orchestrating ceasefire after a short Pakistan-India war last month.    

Expressing his views about the latest developments, Shehbaz said Pakistan would continue playing a positive role for peace in Middle East.

The contact made by Rubio came as Trump has said that the US and Iran would hold talks next week and that the two sides might even reach agreement.

Read more: Trump thinks ‘exhausted’ Israel and Iran will not go to war in future

He also expressed the hope that Iran and Israel won’t got to war again as they had been exhausted.

Earlier, the US president had stated that he does not want to see “regime change” in Iran, which he said would lead to chaos.

“If there was, there was, but no I don’t want it. I’d like to see everything calm down as quickly as possible,” Trump said. “Regime change takes chaos, and ideally we don’t want to see so much chaos.”

Amid the hectic open and close-door diplomacy, State Department Deputy Spokesperson Tommy Pigott said on Thursday Rubio will host foreign ministers from Australia, India and Japan on July 1.